-- Total revenues decreased to $136.4 million, down $23.1 million, or
14.5%, from $159.5 million in the preceding quarter but up $23.6 million,
or 20.9%, from $112.7 million in the third quarter of the prior year due
primarily to the Optium merger completed on August 29, 2008;
-- Optics revenues decreased to $126.1 million, down $21.6 million, or
14.7% from $147.7 million in the preceding quarter but up $23.1 million, or
22.5%, from $103.0 million in the third quarter of the prior year due
primarily to the Optium merger;
-- Revenues from the sale of products for 10/40 Gbps applications
decreased to $49.1 million in the third quarter, down $4.9 million, or
9.1%, from $54.0 million in the preceding quarter but increased $20.0
million, or 68.5%, from $29.1 million in the third quarter of the prior
year due primarily to the Optium merger;
-- Network Test revenues decreased to $10.3 million, down $1.5 million,
or 12.6%, from $11.8 million in the preceding quarter, but increased $0.5
million, or 5.0%, from $9.8 million in the third quarter of the prior year;
-- Gross margin remained unchanged from the preceding quarter at 30.2%
but decreased from 33.4% in the third quarter of the prior year due
primarily to the Optium merger;
-- Operating loss before a charge for goodwill impairment was $3.2
million, or (2.4)% of revenue, compared to an operating loss of $10.3
million, or (6.4)% of revenue, in the preceding quarter and an operating
loss of $8.2 million, or (7.3)% of revenue, in the third quarter of the
prior year;
-- A charge of $46.5 million for the impairment of goodwill was
recognized in conjunction with a continued deterioration in the
macroeconomic environment and a reduction in the Company's fair market
value as of the end of the third quarter. This followed a charge of $178.8
million for the impairment of goodwill in the preceding quarter related
primarily to the addition of $151.0 million in goodwill as a result of the
Optium merger;
-- A net loss of $47.4 million, or $(0.10) per share, compared to net
loss of $186.8 million, or $(0.44) per share, in the preceding quarter and
a net loss of $11.5 million, or $(0.04) per share, in the third quarter of
the prior year; and
-- Cash and short-term investments, plus other long-term investments that
can be readily converted into cash, totaled $35.3 million at the end of the
third quarter compared to $51.9 million at the end of the prior quarter.
The decrease primarily reflects a reduction in accounts payable of $23.7
million, or 33%, from the prior quarter and the purchase during the third
quarter of $8.0 million in principal amount of the Company's 2.5%
convertible notes for $3.9 million and the payment of $5.0 million to the
former shareholders of Kailight previously acquired by Optium and triggered
by the merger. The Company continues to maintain a secured credit facility
totaling $45.0 of which $5.0 million was utilized at the end of the
quarter. The Company also has approximately $10.0 million available under
other unsecured lines of credit. Finisar has classified certain of its
investments as long-term based on its intent to hold these securities until
maturity, although they can be readily sold if required.

In addition to reporting financial results in accordance with generally
accepted accounting principles, or GAAP, Finisar provides supplemental
information regarding its operating performance on a non-GAAP basis.
Finisar believes this additional information provides investors and
management with additional insight into its underlying core operating
performance by excluding a number of non-cash and cash charges as well as
gains or losses principally related to acquisitions, the sale of minority
investments, restructuring or other transition activities, impairments and
financing transactions. For the third quarter of fiscal 2009, these
excluded items included, among other items described in Finisar Non-GAAP
Financial Measures below, a non-cash charge of $46.5 million for the
impairment of goodwill; $4.1 million in non-cash stock compensation
expense; $2.5 million in amortization charges related to acquired developed
technology and purchased intangibles arising from previous acquisitions; a
$4.1 million gain related to the repurchase of the Company's outstanding
convertible notes; and a $1.0 million non-cash credit for slow moving and
obsolete inventory.

Excluding these items:

-- Non-GAAP gross margins decreased sequentially to 31.4%, compared to
35.6% in the preceding quarter and 38.2% in the third quarter of the prior
year. The sequential decrease in non-GAAP gross margin reflects a full
quarter impact of the Optium merger and increased manufacturing costs on a
per unit basis resulting from lower shipment volumes; and
-- Non-GAAP operating income of $3.1 million, or 2.3% of revenues, was
down from $12.8 million, or 8.0% of revenues, in the preceding quarter, and
from $7.6 million, or 6.7% of revenues, in the third quarter of the prior
year. The decrease in operating margin from the previous quarter reflects
the impact of lower shipment levels partially offset by a reduction of
$4.1 million in operating expenses; and
-- Non-GAAP net income decreased to $2.3 million, or $0.00 per diluted
share, compared to $10.3 million, or $0.02 per diluted share, in the
preceding quarter and $5.8 million, or $0.02 per diluted share, in the
third quarter of the prior year.

In its earlier announcement regarding revenues for the third quarter, the
Company noted that it continued to make progress with respect to additional
new product customer qualifications, but also noted that a continuing
softness in orders would mostly likely result in a further decrease in
revenues for its upcoming fourth quarter ending April 30, 2009. Among the
products recently qualified were the following:

"Despite the difficult economic environment, we have made significant
progress in qualifying new products at a number of customers," said Jerry
Rawls, Finisar's executive Chairman of the Board. "Nevertheless, we
believe revenue for the upcoming fourth quarter will be sequentially lower,
although the weakness appears to be concentrated at a small number of
customers."

"We continue to make progress in terms of reducing costs," said Eitan
Gertel, Finisar's Chief Executive Officer. "With the reductions we have
already realized, our non-GAAP EBITDA exceeded $11 million in the most
recent quarter. Combined with the additional cost reductions that we have
put in place for the fourth quarter, we should be in a good position to
weather any near term weakness in our top line."

Cost Reduction Actions

As noted in its announcement regarding third quarter revenues, the Company
has undertaken a number of cost reduction actions which are expected to
result in total annual savings of approximately $44 million as compared to
the cost structure of the combined company for the full second fiscal
quarter ended Nov. 2, 2008. Approximately $24 million of these annual cost
savings have been realized as of the third quarter ended February 1, 2009.
An additional $8 million in annual cost savings are expected to be realized
in the upcoming fourth quarter ending April 30, 2009, and the remaining $12
million in annual cost savings are expected to benefit the Company by the
second quarter ending November 1, 2009. The actions undertaken to date
include:

-- Personnel reductions of approximately 200 people, or 17% of the
Company's total workforce, excluding operations in Malaysia and Shanghai;
-- Reduction in salaries totaling 10% for officers, directors and most
employees starting in February 2009; and
-- Suspension of 401(k) matching Company contributions.

Other cost reduction actions that are expected to benefit the Company
beginning in the first quarter ending August 2, 2009 include: (1) the
transfer of certain product manufacturing to the Company's lower cost
off-shore locations, and (2) cost savings from engineering changes to
enable the broader use of internally manufactured components.

CONFERENCE CALL

Finisar will discuss these financial statements and its current business
outlook during its regular quarterly conference call scheduled for today,
March 5, 2009, at 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time. To listen to the call you may
connect to the investor page of Finisar at www.finisar.com or dial
866-393-6455 (domestic) or 706-634-9717 (international) and enter passcode
84169293.

A replay of the webcast will be available shortly after the conclusion of
the call on the Company's website until the next conference call to be held
approximately 90 days from today. An audio replay of the call will be
accessible to the public by calling (800) 642-1687 (domestic) or
(706) 645-9291 (international) and then, following the prompts, enter
conference ID 84169293 and record your name, affiliation, and contact
number. The audio replay will be available for two weeks following the
call.

The statements contained in this press release that are not purely
historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E
of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All forward-looking
statements included in this press release are based upon information
available to Finisar as of the date hereof, and Finisar assumes no
obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking
statements involve risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results
to differ materially from those projected. Examples of such risks include
those associated with: the uncertainty of customer demand for Finisar's
products, the integration of the operations of Optium and the realization
of synergies expected to result from Finisar's combination with Optium; the
rapidly evolving markets for Finisar's products and uncertainty regarding
the development of these markets; Finisar's historical dependence on sales
to a limited number of customers and fluctuations in the mix of products
and customers in any period; ongoing new product development and
introduction of new and enhanced products; the challenges of rapid growth
followed by periods of contraction; and intensive competition. Additional
risks include the potential impact of pending civil litigation arising from
the investigation of Finisar's historical option granting practices.
Further information regarding these and other risks relating to Finisar's
business, including the recently acquired operations of Optium, is set
forth in Finisar's quarterly report on Form 10-Q (filed December 17, 2008).

ABOUT FINISAR

Finisar Corporation (NASDAQ: FNSR) is a global technology leader for fiber
optic subsystems and network test systems that enable high-speed voice,
video and data communications for networking, storage, wireless, and cable
TV applications. For more than 20 years, Finisar has provided critical
optics technologies to system manufacturers to meet the increasing demands
for network bandwidth and storage. Finisar is headquartered in Sunnyvale,
California, USA with R&D, manufacturing sites, and sales offices worldwide.
For additional information, visit www.finisar.com.

In addition to reporting financial results in accordance with generally
accepted accounting principles, or GAAP, Finisar provides supplemental
information regarding the Company's operating performance on a non-GAAP
basis that excludes certain gains, losses and charges of a non-cash nature
or which occur relatively infrequently and which management considers to be
outside our core operating results. Some of these non-GAAP measures also
exclude the ongoing impact of historical business decisions made in
different business and economic environments. Management believes that
tracking non-GAAP gross profit, non-GAAP income from operations, non-GAAP
net income and non-GAAP net income per share provides management and the
investment community with valuable insight into our current operations, our
ability to generate cash and the underlying business trends which are
affecting our performance. These non-GAAP measures are used by both
management and our Board of Directors, along with the comparable GAAP
information, in evaluating our current performance and planning our future
business activities. In particular, management finds it useful to exclude
non-cash charges in order to better correlate our operating activities with
our ability to generate cash from operations and to exclude non-recurring
and infrequently incurred cash charges as a means of more accurately
predicting our liquidity requirements. We believe that these non-GAAP
measures, when used in conjunction with our GAAP financial information,
also allow investors to better evaluate our financial performance in
comparison to other periods and to other companies in our industry.

In calculating non-GAAP gross profit, we have excluded the following items
from cost of revenues in applicable periods:

In calculating non-GAAP operating income, we have excluded the same
items to the extent they are classified as operating expenses, and have
also excluded the following items in applicable periods:

-- Options investigation costs included in general and administrative
expense (non-recurring cash charges related to the special investigation
into our historical stock option granting practices) and the cost of
covering employee and employer tax liabilities (non-recurring cash charges)
arising from that investigation recorded in each line of the income
statement;
-- Disposal of a product line (non-recurring charges);
-- Acquired in-process research and development expense (non-recurring
and non-cash charges);
-- Amortization of purchased intangibles (non-cash charges related to
prior acquisitions); and
-- Impairment charges associated with intangible assets (non-cash and non-
recurring).

In calculating non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP net income per share, we
have also excluded the following items in applicable periods:

-- Amortization of discount on convertible debt (non-cash charges);
-- Gains and losses on debt extinguishment (non-recurring and non-cash
charges or income);
-- Gains and losses on sales of assets (non-recurring or non-cash losses
and cash gains related to the periodic disposal of assets no longer
required for current activities);
-- Gains and losses on minority investments (infrequently occurring and
principally non-cash gains and losses related to the disposal of
investments in other companies and non-cash income or loss from these
investments accounted for under the equity method);
-- Foreign exchange transaction loss (non-recurring and non-cash
charges);
-- Tax charges arising from timing difference related to asset purchases
(non-cash provision); and
-- Cumulative effect of change in accounting principle (non-recurring and
non-cash charges or income).

A reconciliation of this non-GAAP financial information to the
corresponding GAAP information is set forth below: